


Cheated

by I_can_only_imagine



Series: DitF left me with a lot of feelings okay [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman: A Death in the Family - Fandom, Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010)
Genre: Damian Wayne is Normal, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Jason Todd is Damian Wayne's Parental Figure, Post-Batman: A Death In The Family Movie, no beta we die like jason, or as normal as you can be in his situation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:01:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27053821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_can_only_imagine/pseuds/I_can_only_imagine
Summary: Jason Todd cheated death and gave up on family. That was, until Talia gave Jason her and Bruce's son who she had told Bruce was dead. Now Jason goes by the alias Jay Head in rural Virginia under the cover of a boy who's parents died when he was sixteen leaving him to raise his baby brother.
Relationships: Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd & Damian Wayne
Series: DitF left me with a lot of feelings okay [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1974493
Comments: 10
Kudos: 235





	Cheated

**Author's Note:**

> I kinda hate how this turned out but c'est la vie.

_ I guess I’m destined for family life after all. Oh Damian, my brother. You’re going to be alright. I’m going to get you all fixed up. _

**Five Years Later**

“Mr. Head, may I speak with you?”

Jason let out a sigh and turned back to his english teacher. A glance at the clock told him he really didn’t have time for this. Class had run over already and he had to be across the city in a few minutes if he wanted to make it in time for the kindergarten pick up. He really didn’t need to deal with the PTA moms’ dirty looks again and Damian’s teacher’s pity.

“I’m sorry professor, I really need to get going,” Jason said.

“I wasn’t really asking,” the professor. “I wanted to talk to you about your last short story you turned in.”

“I’m sorry, I was in a rush to do it, I promise I’ll make up for it with the next one,” Jason said. “I had to get to my brother’s Thanksgiving play and after that I had work-”

“Mr. Head please,” his professor cut him off. “I wasn’t going to lecture you on work ethic, but if that is really what you can come up with in a rush, then I’m glad I was able to catch you. I would like for you to enter your paper into the state writing competition. I believe you could easily win with it.”

Jason shifted from one foot to the other and glanced at the clock again. He was going to be five minutes later, and that was if traffic was good. Traffic was never good, what was he thinking?

“Mr. Head?”

“I’m sorry sir,” he said, drawing his attention back to his teacher. “I really don’t think entering a competition would do me any good.”

“But it couldn’t do you any bad.”

_ Oh if only you knew. _

“Maybe not, but I have other things I need to be focusing on,” Jason said. “Really I need to go get my brother now. But thank you for the suggestion.”

“Mr. Head-”

Jason rushed out of the classroom, practically running down the hall before his teacher could stop him again.

Talia had insisted on sending Jason to this university. No matter how many times Jason had told her he just wanted to focus on the mission, she had insisted that Jason shouldn’t give up on the dreams he had set for himself. It was just like their argument about him finishing high school, and the one about a house being built on the property his dad left for him in Virginia for them to live in, and the one about him taking a break from the mission in general. Well that last one had been a lot worse than the others, but still. Bringing him Joker to kill had been the only thing that swayed him to put away his guns for a few years and try to live a secret, normal life.

Or as normal as it could be raising the son of the demon’s daughter and the bat.

If only she knew. If only any of them knew what he had planned.

They would soon enough. When Damian was old enough, he would set the plan in motion. He had already been successful on part of the plan if the way Damian had acted the one time he was ever left with Talia was anything to go by. The kid was loyal to him and him alone, and he had managed to make him so just by loving him and treating him like the kid he was. The family he was.

Jason pulled up to Damian’s school in the stupid little black Buick LaCrosse he had gotten to blend in better and parked as quickly as he could. The kids weren’t outfront at pickup anymore, and when he checked his watch he realized he was even later than he thought.

“Mr. Head,” Damian’s teacher said when he got to her classroom.

“Ma’am, I’m so sorry,” he started but she cut him off with the kind smile she always did and the pitying eyes that he hated so much.

“It’s alright Mr. Head, I understand completely,” she said. “We have plenty of single moms at the school, already I can’t imagine what that would be like. You’re raising your little brother all alone while working through college, we will never hold time against you.”

“Thank you,” Jason said. He looked around and found he couldn’t see Damian. For a second, a shot of panic kicked in. Ra’s hadn’t made a kidnapping attempt in years, but he still felt like he couldn’t breath when Damian wasn’t where he was supposed to be. But his teacher was calm, so Jason took a deep breath and waited.

Not a minute later, Damian came out of the little bathroom connected to the class. When his eyes landed on Jason his whole face lit up and he ran into Jason’s arms.

“Hey buddy,” Jason laughed as he caught him. “Careful there, you’re getting too big to do that. You could knock me completely over one day.”

Damian laughed at that, so Jason picked him up onto his hip and tickled his stomach. When he stopped, Dmaian was a laughing, giggling mess, holding on tightly to him.

“Did you have a good day in class?” Jason asked.

Damian nodded the same time his teacher said, “He had an amazing day. We’re in our zoology unit and I think we might have a little veterinarian on our hands.”

“Really?” Jason kept his smile on Damian. “He’s always loved animals. I’ve been thinking of getting him a dog or a cat.”

“Both,” Damian grinned.

“You think so,” Jason couldn’t help but laugh again. “Both it is then.”

Jason wished his teacher a good day and carried Damian back to the car, pointedly ignoring the PTA moms as they passed by and whispered, focusing his attention solely on his brother’s excited chatter about marsupials. Still, he saw the way one of the women tried to discreetly gesture to the left side of her face, and he had to focus hard on not snapping.

“When can I have my dog and cat?” Damian asked as he buckled him into his car seat.

“Tonight,” Jason said. “You can come with me to work and pick them out.”

Because what Damian wanted, he got.

No matter how hard Jason had tried to detach himself, to remember the mission, those years away had made him soft. What Damian wanted, he got, because he deserved it. He was a good kid, a smart kid, and most importantly he was Jason’s kid.

Talia had mentioned during her last visit that she believed Jason was spoiling Damian a bit much, but she hadn’t complained. She knew his reasoning, so she continued to fill up his bank account anytime it dipped below half a million, and they continued to pretend in front of Damian that everything he had, Jason had gotten him with money he made from his job at the animal shelter. A no kill shelter, because even if Jason believed in killing the disgusting, vile pieces of filth on this earth whose actions were excused because they were human, he didn’t believe in killing innocent animals.

Damian would get everything he wanted, because Jason had never gotten anything he wanted, and Jason refused to let Damian end up like him. Damian was going to be better. So much better.

Do you think the nice lady will be there again today?” Damian asked as Jason pulled onto the road that led to their house.

“She might be,” Jason gave him a smile in the rearview mirror. “You’ll just have to see when we get there. But we can’t go until after you’ve finished your homework and had dinner, okay?”

“Okay!”

Jason looked at him in the rearview mirror and something shifted inside of him.

Damian was smiling and playing with the dog, a childish light in his eyes that Jason had lost when he was eight and found his mother dead on their bathroom floor. He didn’t want Damian to lose that light like he had. He didn’t want Damian to stop smiling.

It hit him like a bus and like a drop of snow at the same time. The realization that he truly loved Damian more than anything in this world. More than he had ever loved anyone or anything else. Damian had brought back some of that light in him, and he couldn’t let him go.

His plan he had been building for five years to use Damian to destroy Bruce and Talia in one fatal blow evaporated before his eyes and he was left with that love. Damian would be normal. Damian would be happy. Damian would be safe.

Damn it. This kid was going to be the death of him.

“What are you going to name them?” Jason asked from where he was cleaning one of the corners of the shelter. The shelter had closed down for the night an hour before, but something in his gut had told him not to go home, so he had busied himself with cleaning to not alarm Damian. He had texted Talia that he felt something was wrong and asked one of her men stationed in the town to sweep his property before they went home.

Damian was playing with his new pets, a great dane about a year old and a black cat with a shite belly, paws, tail and mouth.

“Titus for the dog after Titus Andronicus,” Damian said. “And Alfred for the cat after the buttler you told me about.”

Jason froze in his cleaning for a moment, but restarted before Damian could notice.

“Those are nice names,” Jason said, expertly hiding the pain in his voice. “They’re going to love their new home.”

“Are you sure we have everything they need?” Damian asked.

“I’m sure,” Jason said. He had already bought and loaded everything they needed into the car. Beds, food, bowls, toys, a cat tower. He had already decided to bring Damian to the general home store tomorrow to get the materials to build Titus a dog house.

“When can we go home? I’m tired.”

As if on cue, the text from Talia arrived telling him her agent had messaged her saying the coast was clear and nothing was wrong back at the house.

“We can go right now,” Jason said, putting everything away. He grabbed his coat and keys and cradled Alfred the cat in his arms while Damian led Titus along on his leash. The car ride home was quiet, and by the time they were within ten minutes of the house, Jason could hear Damian snoring.

He opened the front door to let the animals run in first then went back to the car. Both arms were loaded up with the reusable bags the shelter sold, the dog and cat beds rested in one arm and Damian carried in the other. He would come back out for the cat tower tomorrow, but at that moment he agreed with Damian’s earlier statement. He was tired.

“Jay,” Damian mumbled against his shoulder when they got inside.

“Hey buddy,” Jason whispered. He laid the beds down and left the bags in the kitchen to be unloaded in the morning.

Damian’s small hands curled into his work uniform as he nuzzled himself closer, “Is that weird lady going to take me away?”

Jason stopped dead in his tracks and looked down at Damian, holding him a little tighter. “No Dami, what would you ask that?”

“Because she’s in the house.”

A metal canister rolled to his feet and Jason barely had time to tightly hold Damian's head to his shoulder and bring his apron up to cover his mouth and nose before it went off. The room filled with smoke.

Jason didn’t hesitate after he was sure the smoke was just normal smoke. He moved quickly, jostling Damian fully awake. It wasn’t that hard, Damian had apparently been more alarmed than he had thought, and was awake as ever.

“Down to the safe room,” Jason said in a rush as he sat him down. “Now. Don’t you dare open that door for anyone but me, and even if it is me don’t open it without the code word, okay?”

He couldn’t hear Damian as he ran away, and it made him give the smallest smile of pride. He had trained Damian well. Both of them could run full speed through the house blindfolded. Damian knew this house like the back of his hand, and Talia and whoever she was with hadn’t thought this out well if they thought smoke could hinder either of them.

It took less than two seconds to retrieve the blades strapped to his thighs under his pants, and even less time to snap into action and deflect the blow aimed at him from behind. He didn’t take the time to try and assess whoever it was Talia had sicked on him. He didn’t have to act on the offense, just defense. He just needed to keep Damian safe. Damian was all that mattered.

“Talia you bitch,” Jason yelled as he fought whichever laky it was attacking him. He dodged a few more hits, but wasn’t fast enough to avoid the man disarming him. “I swear if Ra’s put you up to this-”

“I’m sorry,” Talia yelled back from somewhere across the room where Jason could hear her engaged in fast combat as well. Interesting. “I was trying to make a sweep of the house myself, they caught me off guard and stole my phone.”

“Who did?” Jason yelled back, sliding under the man and grabbing onto his ankle to flip him to the ground. The man had predicted his movement though, and used his momentum during his fall to flip over and pin Jason.

“I did,” that gravely voice he knew all too well spoke above him.

The smoke cleared out enough to see in the time it took for Jason’s brain to catch up. In the corner of his eye he could see Talia being brought down by an equally familiar man in a tight fitting black and blue suit, but his attention was on the man above him.

“Fuck,” Jason hissed, a new found energy powering his struggle. It was futile. He hadn’t been in the field in years, even if he had kept up his training and workout routine. He had never grown to the full size he was supposed to, leaving him the height of a teenager at twenty, and combining that with his rusty practice, and the man’s own size and skill was a death sentence.

“Jason stop, you’re going to hurt yourself,” Bruce- no, Batman said. It was Batman, his cowl still pulled up over his face despite everyone on the three acre property knowing his identity.

“Fuck you,” jason spat, struggling that much harder. His wrists were pinned by his head and hsi legs were held down by Batman’s weight. He was immobilized. He couldn’t do anything.

“Little Wing-” Nightwing started but Jason cut him off screaming “Fuck you too you dick.”

“Fine, that’s how you want to do this,” Nightwing huffed. “Who’s Damian?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jason said, looking right into Batman’s lensis.

“We saw the texts between you and Talia, and saw you with the boy. There is no point in lying,” Batman growled.

“Jason please just-”

“No,” Jason cut Talia off. “I’m not telling you shit about Damian. And you aren't going to interrogate him to get information either. He knows what to do when shit like this is happening.”

“So this has happened before,” Batman said.

“He did mention Ra’s earlier. It could have something to do with him,” Nightwing pointed out.

“Shut up,” Jason snapped.

“Jason we know what you’ve done. We found your file with the League of Assassins.”

“Shut the fuck up Bruce or I swear to god I’ll shoot you as soon as I get the chance, and don’t you dare doubt that I will get the chance.”

“We will wait until the boy comes out if we have to,” Batman’s grip tightened on Jason and he had to fight to suppress a flinch. That was going to leave a mark. How would he explain dark bruising on his wrists to his professor? To Damian’s teachers? To his coworkers?

“He won’t come out,” Jason shook his head. Despite his position, a triumphant, manic grin crossed his lips and he shook his head. “He has enough food and water in that safe room to last him months. There’s a bathroom and several plants with artificial growing lamps down there too, and I wouldn’t doubt he stopped to grab the dog and cat. Not to mention an arsenal of weapons he knows how to use if he needs to come out. And trust me, he doesn’t hesitate.”

“Jason do you really think we can’t disarm a five year old if we were able to take you and Talia al Ghul down?” Nightwing asked.

“Six, actually,” Jason said. “Six and fucking deadly. More so than Talia even knows.”

“What?” Talia snapped.

Well, it looked like this whole plan was out the window.

“You raised a child to be a weapon,” Batman was growling darker, and his grip was tight enough that Jason’s wrist bones popping and shifting could clearly be heard throughout the room.

“Hypocrite,” Jason said through his clenched teeth. The pain was making it hard to breath. So was the panic washing over him now that his adrenaline was wearing down. His heartbeat was in his ear and throat at the same time and his brain was rushing with alarms of  _ danger danger danger! _

“Don’t start with that,” Nighwing said. “Training a nine year old and training a kid since birth are two very different things.”

“He was never going to have to use that fucking training,” Jason’s voice was raising with every spike in pain and panic. “He needed it to protect him from the League and from you, but I was never going to let any of you near him. He was going to be normal!”

“And how long ago did you decide that?” Batman asked.

Jason gulped down a lump in his throat and tried to breathe, but it was only making him panic more, “Today on my home with him.”

“So you were going to use him as a weapon then.”

“I was going to destroy you with him,” Jason felt the truth tumbling from him without his permission. His pulse was racing. He couldn’t breath. His mind was going back to another time when he had been pinned like this, when his wrists had been in this much pain. He was shaking, he was sure he was shaking, and his vision was blurring. In the rational part of his brain he knew Bruce wouldn’t kill him and Damian was safe in the safe room. Too bad for him that his rational brain was being overridden with fear for his little brother.

“I was going to destroy you and the house of al Ghul,” Jason was shaking his head, fighting now to keep tears out of his eyes. He couldn’t cry right now. He had to try and pull himself together.

But he had slipped too far already.

“Please, I just want him to be normal now,” Jason’s breath hitched. “I just wanted him to be safe. Please, I love him. Please just let us go.”

“In case you’ve forgotten you signed a contract with the League of Assassins,” Talia said and shit, admitting that definitely had Talia angry, he could hear it. She had trusted him with her son, he couldn’t blame her. She trusted him, but he had never really broken that trust, had he? He had only planned to, and that plan was gone now.

“I’m sorry,” Jason took in a shaking breath. His eyes had never left the lenses of Batman’s cowl, but he couldn’t really see them anymore. His mind was stuck on  _ pain pain fear fear pain fear pain fear- _

“Jason, lad take a deep breath,” Bruce said above him. Not Batman, Bruce. That was Bruce’s voice. Bruce was here. How long had it been since Bruce had been here? How long had it been since Jason heard his Dad’s voice?

His rational brain supplied him with the answer. Since he was fifteen. Six years.

The pain in his wrists was just a phantom down. The roughness of Batman’s gloves was moved instead to cup his face, wiping his tears with the textured pads of his thumbs. He blinked harshly and found Bruce’s blue eyes looking into his.

“I just want him to be safe,” Jason said through a sob. “Please leave us alone. I’ll finish my contact, but please leave us alone. I just want him to be safe.”

“Just tell us who he is Jaylad,” Bruce saidin a soothing voice, dragging him into his lap.

“Jason don’t you dare!” Talia said from where Dick was still holding her. Her voice was distant though, so distant he barely had the strength to remember she was there. But her words were still something he himself felt in that rational part of his brain.

“I can’t,” Jason shook his head. “I can’t. You’ll take him away from me. I love him, you can’t take him from me. He won’t go with you.”

“I won’t,” Damian’s voice sent a cold shock though Jason that made him let out a broken sob. This was it. They were going to take him. Damian wasn’t safe in the safe room anymore and they were going to take him.

“Holy shit he was serious,” Nightwing whispered the same time Talia screamed, “Damian!”

“Let my brother go or I’ll shoot,” Damian threatened Bruce.

“Do you know how dangerous one of those is?” Bruce asked. His eyes didn’t leave Jason’s, but they both knew it was definitely a gun that was being held to his head. “Those aren’t something to play with.”

Damian shifted and a bullet went through the floorboard right by Bruce’s foot, sending a flinch though Batman.

“I’m not playing,” Damian said in the coldest voice Jason had ever heard from him. He sounded like a perfect mixture of Talia, Bruce and Jason when they were angry. “Let my brother go now.”

Carefully Bruce sat Jason back onto the ground and put his hands up in surrender. Jason rolled away from him and sprung to his feet in one move and rushed to Damian.

He took the gun from Damian and unloaded it before tossing it aside, then lifted Damian up into his arms and held him close.

“I told you to stay in the safe room,” Jason said, pressing a desperate kiss to his hair and temples. Damian was here. Damian was in his arms. Damian was safe. He wasn’t going to let them take Damian from him, he was in his arms and he was safe.

“I heard yelling and I couldn’t let them hurt you,” Damian said, chest puffed with a brave face. Jason let out a sob at that, but he was smiling.

“Don’t ever do something like that again,” Jason said. “Never, do you hear me? When I tell you to stay put please just stay put.”

“Okay,” Damian said. The bravery gradually succumbed to guilt for worrying him and a pout that told Jason he could cry at any given moment.

Jason remembered their audience and turned to face them, holding Damian a little tighter than before. Bruce and Dick were staring at him in shock while Talia appeared more heartsick than anything else.

“I’m going to put Damian to bed, then we can talk,” he told them. There was no room for argument, so everyone just nodded and took seats around the living room.

Jason carried Damian up the stairs, Titus and Alfred the Cat now at his ankles and struggling to keep up. When he tucked Damian into his bed they both hopped up and curled up with him.

“Jay?” Damian said after he had kissed his head.

“Yeah Dami?” Jason asked, flicking on the nightlight.

“Are you sure they aren’t going to take me away?”

“I’m sure. I won’t ever let them take you away. Try to get some sleep.”

“Will you come back up and sleep with me when you’re done talking to them?”

Jason smiled and pressed another kiss to his head, “Sure Dami. Don’t wait up for me though. I promise I’ll be here when you wake up.”

“I love you saqiq.”

“I love you too habibi, sleep well.”

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments give me life so if you liked the story feel free to leave some!  
> Come find me over @what-if-i-imagine on tumblr where my asks, prompts, and requests are always open!


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